The legislation basically regulated the growing, processing, purchase and sale of coffee in Jamaica. And, it specifies restrictions on what quality of coffee beans are allowed to be exported from Jamaica.

From reading this legislation, it seems that Jamaica was pretty much allowing the government to restrict Jamaica from allowing anyone who wasn’t a member of the Board from being able to farm coffee.

This left most of the coffee bean production to be limited to these four regions of the Blue Mountain:

Saint Andrew

Saint Thomas

Portland

Saint Mary

By limiting the amount of coffee that could leave Jamaica, and putting restrictions that forced higher quality, Blue Mountain began to grow this market.

Low, High, and Then There’s Blue

Just like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the Blue Mountain of Jamaica has three sizes of coffee.

Coffee beans grown at altitudes of 1,500 feet or lower are in the Low Mountain region. These beans are often referred to as Jamaica Supreme coffee beans.

Coffee beans grown at altitudes from 1,500 to 3,000 feet are called High Mountain region coffee beans.

But, it’s the coffee beans grown from 3,000 to 5,500 feet that are Just Right if we keep with the Goldilocks metaphor. Coffee beans grown in these elevations are what have become famous as Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans.

The Coffee Industry Regulation Act restricts the Blue Mountain name from being applied to any beans except those that are grown at those elevations.

Style? Blend? Or, Authentic Jamaican Blue Mountain?

While researching Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans, we came across several products that have worked around the restrictions of the Coffee Industry Regulation Act.

One of the gimmicks you will see is that they will name their coffee bean product something like Jamaican Blue Mountain Style coffee beans.

This means that they have tried to copy the characteristics of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans. But, that they are not authentic.

Typically these Style types of beans are just trying to piggy back on the strong name that Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans have built. They do this because the strong quality reputation allows them to charge a premium for the name, even though they are not truly authentic.

The other trick coffee bean producers try is to mix in some expensive Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans with some cheaper coffee bean that just doesn’t have the same quality.

So, you have to be careful when shopping Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans.

Where Jamaican Blue Mountain is Grown

Jamaica has a rich history that includes many famous residents. But, one of the most famous parts of Jamaica is its Blue Mountain.

Blue Mountain covers almost the entire area of Eastern Jamaica. Blue Mountain is divided across four of the fourteen parishes in Eastern Jamaica.

Saint Thomas

Saint Thomas parish is the least well known of the four mountain parishes for its Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans.

Christopher Columbus made his way to Jamaica in 1494. Like in America, he found many native Indians. It wasn’t for almost another 200 years before the British captured Jamaica and began to colonize it.

Years of slavery followed until slavery was abolished by Britain in 1834. Several years later during another colorful piece of Jamaican history, the Morant Bay Rebellion broke out after tension between freed slaves and farmers.

It wasn’t for another 100 years until farmers began to take advantage of the Jamaican Blue Mountain name.

Hagley Gap is one of the locations that is the most well known for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans in Saint Thomas parish.

Portland

The Blue Mountains National Park resides in Portland parish in Jamaica. And, Portland parish has a history of receiving the most rainfall of any parish in Jamaica due to it being in the direct path of the northeast trade winds.

Having so much rain is a boon for Portland. However, being in the direct path of the northeast trade winds puts Jamaica into the direct path of hurricanes.

Rowan’s Royale Coffee is one example of Portland Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans. It is situated in Silver Hill Gap in Portland parish at around 4,000 feet. They are one of several farmers that make great Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans.

Saint Mary’s parish is also home to many Taíno/Arawak Indians that were the original natives of Jamaica before the British and French made their marks on Jamaica.

It’s More than a Lifestyle

Living in the Blue Mountains can be isolated and a unique way of life.

During our research, we found this very interesting video that includes a variety of beautiful images and interviews one of the local Blue Mountain natives.

Make sure you get to the interview!

The Best Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Beans

Now that we’ve given you some of the background on what it means to have the Jamaican Blue Mountain label, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give you our recommendations for the best of this brand.

Each of these products did have a steep sticker price. However, even with the high prices, the feedback from users is that the beans were worth the price.

100% Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Brands

When you are looking for Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans, be careful to not just look for the trademark name.

Some manufacturers use Jamaican Blue Mountain in the name just so they can justify charging a little extra. But, when you read the fine print, you find out that the coffee is just Jamaican Blue Mountain Style coffee beans.

This typically means that less expensive and lower quality coffee beans are used in the product.

Here are two products that we feel live up to the Jamaican Blue Mountain name.

Jamaican Blue Mountain is in short supply these days. This drives the price up. We’ve given you a link to a smaller bag to keep the price somewhat down. If you’ve tried this coffee before and know how good it is, here is the link for a full pound bag.

Lina Coffee Roasters roasts and ships their beans in sealed bags with a one-way degassing valve. The listing above is for 5 pounds. To keep the beans fresh, each pound is shipped in a separate sealed bag (total of 5 bags).

If you don’t think you can drink 5 pounds, one idea is to split the costs with a friend. Or, give individual bags of 1 pound to friends for the holidays or special occasions.

Jamaican Blue Mountain Blends

During our research, we found two products that had sufficiently high quality that we felt they deserved mention even though they were blends.

They do appear to be relying on the Jamaican Blue Mountain name to boost their price. We wouldn’t mention this except that users have reported that these are very good products even with the extra cost.

While researching Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans, I ran across this Keurig compatible product that provides 20% JBM beans in its blend of coffee beans.

Be aware that the pods work out of the box for the older non-2.0 Keurig machines. To use them in a Keurig 2.0 machine is possible. But, you have to do some rigging to allow your 2.o Keurig to skip the DRM stuff that a 2.0 Keurig is looking for.

To read more about how to bypass the Keurig DRM for your 2.0 machine, and for more info about Keurig in general, visit our Best Keurig Coffee Maker article that has a lot more about all types of Keurig machines.

All of the beans, including the JBM beans, are certified by the Rainforest Alliance. The mission of this alliance is:

Friends of The Coffee Bean Menu: We would also like to introduce you to our friends at Dazzling White Teeth HQ. If you are a daily coffee drinker, you may find their advice useful to eliminate any teeth stains that might haunt you as an avid coffee drinker!

The views and opinions expressed in the articles posted on this website are presented in good faith and are strictly our own opinions.

Accordingly, we promise to make every effort to be fair, accurate and truthful.
However, comments posted at the end of each article represent the advice, reports and opinions of our readers. So, we cannot ensure the accuracy of or be held responsible for their content.

Disclosure: We may earn affiliate commissions at no cost to you from some links on this page. This did not affect our assessment of products. Read more here and find our full disclaimer here..